This "25 Random Things" thing is taking over Facebook - everyone is doing it and I do not mind. It's really fascinating to read what people say about themselves - I have some very insightful, awesome friends. When I wrote mine, I just put down the first 25 interesting things that popped into my little pea brain, and I mentioned a couple of random things I did for my PR job in San Francisco..including but not limited to: dressing up like a Rock Lobster and taking swag bags into radio stations to promote the B-52s at a World Wildlife Fund benefit, and going to Gordon Getty's mansion overlooking the GG Bridge to set up a Forbes photo shoot for the richest people issue..as I was waiting around I browsed his art collection and saw the paintings signed by Monet, Matisse, etc. Pretty sweet. It got me thinking about some of the other totally random and strange things I've done in my PR career, so here they are:1. As the publicist for Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus for SF, San Jose and Oakland, I literally stuffed 6 clowns in full costume in my VW Golf and took them to radio stations for on-air interviews. They were hungry afterwards to I took them to McDonald's before dropping them off at the train where they lived in tiny little box cars.
2. I picked up star clown Bello early in the morning at the Oakland arena where his $200,000 RV was parked - he and his family drove everywhere in the RV while the rest of the circus took the train. His hair barely fit in my Golf, but I got him to his TV morning news appearance.
3. At a fabulous investor's dinner at the winery Gavin Newsom co-owned in Napa (before he was the Mayor of SF), I sat next to him for a few minutes before the investors arrived and cracked a couple of jokes that made him laugh - he's a really cool guy. Right before everyone got there he turned to me and said "I don't want to do this.." and then turned on the old Gavin charm. His wife at the time - Kimberly Guilfoyle was there and told me I looked "lovely." She was sweet, and really pretty but wore way too much make up and acted more like Gavin's campaign manager than his wife. Now she's a Fox news correspondent.
4. While taking a TV crew around the San Francisco Zoo to tape a segment on the new lemur exhibit, I saw Steve Irwin who happened to be there taping another segment. RIP, Steve Irwin.
5. We handled the opening of Ian Schrager's gorgeous Hotel Clift in SF and when I met Ian, he totally checked me out. Elizabeth Hurley, Kyle MacLachlan and Danny Glover were there too.
6. I drove around McEvoy olive oil ranch with a magazine photographer in her Miata convertible placing bottles of oil in the olive trees so she could get a good shot. I was sooo hungover that day, but managed to pull through.
7. As publicist for Disney on Ice shows in the Bay Area, I put together some cool community events. I brought some Disney Princesses to a homeless shelter and we had a tea party with cake and story time. I took photos of the kids with Cinderella and Snow White with a Polaroid camera which they absolutely loved. Another reason its sad they stopped making the Polaroid camera.
8. I organized a trip for the California School of the Blind to come to the San Jose arena and meet some of the Disney on Ice characters who were soft, so they could touch them and get pushed around on the ice in chairs by the ice skaters.
9. We handled PR for the Sybase Open tennis tournament so I got to meet Andre Agassi and brought Michael Chang to a TV station to do a Public Service Announcement. He was very nice.
10. At the World Wildlife Fund event, Lauren Hutton was the co-chair - I met her and she was gorgeous. And the B-52s rocked it. The guys from "Who's Line Is It Anyway" performed too and they were hilarious.
11. We worked on a UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Research benefit at the Fairmont with a concert by Natalie Cole and Michael Crawford that raised $5.9 million dollars. The guest list included people who founded huge companies like Gap, Levi's and Williams Sonoma.
12. I worked on the Celebrity Pool Toss at the Phoenix Hotel - a live auction where celebs getting tossed into the pool was the prize. The CEO of Charles Schwab's wife paid $100k to watch her hubby get tossed in the pool. This was 1999 and the .com days were in full swing - it was a crazy time there.
13. I met Craig - who started Craigslist - at a restaurant opening in SF. He was short, tubby and hit on my friend Linda.
14. 3 co-workers and I were on a TV segment for "Evening Magazine" modeling clothes from a local boutique and showing them "How to Throw A Perfect Pool Party" at one of the condo properties we handled.
15. We handled PR for the Russian River Blues Festival but I didn't have to do much other than attend, so Jeff and I were floating in inner-tubes on the river while Etta James performed "At Last" and some blues songs. It was when she was still quite large and she came out on a little motorized vehicle..her voice was amazing.
16. I met Grace Slick at an art gallery opening for her exhibit "The Art of Grace Slick" where she had painted amazing portraits of Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and others. She was a friend of my boss and really cool.
17. I spent an entire weekend in the mall for a Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game Tournament, we handled PR for all the tournaments around the world for Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Magic and Harry Potter trading cards. Nerd alert!
18. We did PR for the Four Seasons San Francisco and Sports Club LA so I got to work out there sometimes which was awesome. There was an event in the Penthouse of the Four Seasons where every room had been decorated by a different well-known interior designer. There were lots of rich people enjoying fancy decor, hors d'oeuvres, champagne and a string quartet. Classy.
19. I brought clowns and Disney Princesses to hospitals to read to sick kids and it was always amazing to see how much it brightened their day.
20. I helped organize and did PR for the Big Bam! Breast Cancer Awareness events at the W hotel SF and wound up meeting people from Om Records and a DJ who was just starting out named..KASKADE. Meeting them led to me start VimLab where I became my own boss and made my focus throwing amazing parties, publicizing events and meeting all sorts of random and fabulous people.
21. Went to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair with Charlie Lazor to promote FlatPak house - we built a 480/sf Pocket FlatPak in the convention center where we spent 4 days, telling attendees all about FlatPak. Crazy week in NYC where we all stayed at the amazing Hotel Gansvoort and had the time. The Pocket FP now lives in the Walker Scultpure Garden in Minneapolis.
22. While making press calls to promote a show with El Debarge, I got a call from Star Tribune gossip columnist CJ who proceeded to sing 5 minutes of El to me over the phone as a greeting.
23. We created a line of "belinda jensen is not a celebrity" shirts and then I got a client on the morning TV show "Belle" hosts. Whoops-a-daisy.
24. I put on a Celebrity Pool Toss at the Calhoun Beach Club where we tossed MN celebs Sven Sundgaard, Ryan Hoag, Tiffany Ogle, Jason DeRusha and Colleen Kruse - all of them were great sports to raise money for a good cause.
25. I set up an AP photo shoot and interview for client Aaron Colton, the #1 Stunt Riding Champion in the U.S. and the Youngest Professional Streetbike Freestyle Stunter in the World. Watching him do his crazy stunts live in a church parking lot in Shakopee was quite impressive, he's a talented little guy.
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